John Dewey

John Dewey ( born October 20, 1859 in Burlington, Vermont, † June 1, 1952 in New York) was an American philosopher and educator.

Life

John Dewey was born in 1859 in the United States of America in the State of Vermont in the town of Burlington. His father first worked in a food, and later in a tobacco shop. There had to Dewey the strict Puritan New England culture and authoritarian education feel that he later describes as a "sensation of painful oppression."

Dewey graduated in 1879 from the University of Vermont and then worked two years as a high school teacher before he started in 1884 his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. Among his teachers were Granville Stanley Hall - a founder of experimental psychology - and Charles Sanders Peirce. Dewey taught philosophy at the Universities of Michigan ( 1884-88 and 1889-94 ) and Minnesota ( 1888). In 1894 he became chairman of the Department of Philosophy, Psychology and Education at just four years old University of Chicago. From 1904 he was a professor at Columbia University in New York and became an emeritus there in 1930.

From 1899 to 1900, Dewey president of the American Psychological Association, and in 1911 of the American Philosophical Association. Between 1919 and 1921 he undertook lecture tours to Japan and the Republic of China; In 1928, he visited schools in the Soviet Union.

Dewey was one of the founding members of the American Civil Liberties Union and the China Institute in America. Mid-1930s, he was involved in a commission that examined the allegations made in the Moscow show trial against Trotsky; In 1940 he campaigned for the whereabouts of Bertrand Russell at New York's Magisterium.

In addition to numerous academic articles and books Dewey often wrote comments for magazines such as The New Republic and Nation.

Philosophy

First, Dewey followed up in the 1890s, the Hegelian idealism. In Chicago, he finally took the turn to an empiricist philosophy. He put this position most clearly in 1929 in The Quest for Certainty dar.

Its central intention is to defend the contemporary natural sciences against the accusation that they are already theoretical assumptions underlying reasoning in their basic concepts about which they themselves took off to no accountability. This criticism assumes natural sciences did not have any secure foundation and therefore could always demonstrate in concrete phenomena only the possibility of applicability of its basic concepts. A decision on the actual truth was therefore impossible. This objection does not apply Dewey. For he himself emphasizes the purely hypothetical nature of scientific knowledge.

Dewey makes the case, it was not at the recent history of philosophy no independent philosophy. What has so far been taken thereunder, is merely a hybrid of theology and the natural sciences have been: From theology philosophy have taken their claim to absolute knowledge ( truth in the strong sense, certainty ), from the nature of research, however, the means for their attainment, namely the rational thinking. Because of this mixed form of philosophy in the past, the biggest enemy of science was, so far as they have always held in fundamentally the same procedure at the end merely theological claim to absolute knowledge. This claim had initially had quite justified within theology, as long as the human nature had yet been fully delivered and have therefore used the belief in a stable world beyond. The increasing progress of the natural sciences, however, have made ​​them redundant and in the form of philosophical objections to scientific practices he had now become the biggest obstacle to further progress of mankind. Him it was necessary therefore to abandon to instead all a priori concepts (the " ideas " of the philosophical tradition ) completely the sole criterion of usefulness to respond ( " pragmatic turn "). In everyday life, this means that the truth in any perception can always be determined based on already defined terms according to their usefulness for each intended actions. At the level of the sciences it means to defend the outcome of mere constructions, as long as they are in the service application of certain sciences.

From this perspective, Dewey has any future only possible philosophy a very specific task, namely to determine the output of the respective foundations of social life those " values ​​", where science should be required to make it back to the currently important " big human be tied back purposes " (ibid. 310). The philosophy is thus to philosophical anthropology, which always have people become socially to its subject and - so my critics - is to generalize the average values ​​in immanent - affirmative manner. The question of the necessity of a priori conditions for such an endeavor is not discussed by Dewey. Overall, his primary concern is the justification of the natural sciences against the traditional philosophical criticism of them. The program of a future philosophy is finally briefly sketched. Dewey tries with his pragmatism to abolish the philosophy in the traditional sense, and to make this the basis for a new conception of philosophy.

Education

Socio-politically Dewey sat for the democratization of all spheres of life.

Dewey's approach is characterized by the view that the democratic form of government is an essential way of life of their citizens. Thus, the democratic Constitution of the United States have evolved from a common life of free and equal individuals out: ". The clear consciousness of a communal life, with everything that connects to it, constitutes the idea of ​​democracy " ( The Public and Its Problems, S. 129)

For John Dewey, the concept of democracy is initially not a question of form of government; he sees in democracy rather a particular way of each other Verkehrens. The State is the organization of the public, run by officials, to protect the interests of its members. According to Dewey, he is an organizational form of social life in order to regulate certain things, such as foreign policy or legislation for Dewey, democracy is a full and therefore not alienated life. Here comes about the connection to education and schools, as well as the externally controlled, joyless student's learning is therefore undemocratic. Democracy is therefore a consideration of the society from the educational perspective with the main objective to lead the child to become a responsible citizen and to humanize in the further consequence the world of work, which affects Dewey also on the school. Dewey here represents also the social possibilities, to oppose the profit-driven alienation through a meaningful filled and empowered work. As a result, the structures of capitalism are to be converted into those of social humanism. Dewey's understanding of democracy is rooted in the social humanism that emanates from the self - and co-determination of individuals. In his experimental school this understanding expressed in an intelligent self- management of the pupils and the teachers. Dewey was of the opinion that one's own will be available to learn and only needs to be promoted.

In his book Democracy and Education ( 1916) Dewey makes clear, such as education and democracy must be interwoven, if a company does not 'merely its survival " ( Democracy and Education, p 113), but aim at a change for the better. In his view, democracy should always be anchored in concrete and lived together. This operating experience must be made ​​in the family, at school and in the great community so consistently and as intensely as possible.

Children should learn about democracy as a social form of life on an individual level as early as possible. So Dewey discussed the possibilities to introduce democratic methods in the classroom and to anchor democracy in the social organization of schools and teaching. The traditional school of his time, he threw it a fundamental critique. She was handed down not only from pre-democratic times, but they have maintained this tradition in their work.

To substantiate his theory of democratic education, with a strong practice, Dewey developed at the University Elementary School experimental models for the practical realization of his idea.

Founded in 1896 he and his wife Alice Dewey, with the financial support of a group of parents attempt a school in Chicago, the laboratory school, which was affiliated to the University. Learning needs in his opinion entirely be even based on experience. Therefore, to rely even today, many education reformers on him. Children learn in a learning environment for experimenting materials, workshops, library and school garden reality, to discover yourself and know cooperation. The teacher was not the role of the knower and mouth ends before to, but an employee, for example in the project lessons. This acted as a role model on the Bielefeld Laboratory School Hartmut von Hentig. After disputes over the administration of the school both left Chicago and moved to New York. In 1904, John Dewey in New York Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and taught at Teachers College Education. Alice Dewey worked in New York in teachers and teacher education. John Dewey was after leaving his laboratory school for formative author of American progressive education. His 1915 published book " Schools of To- Morrow " became one of the most influential writings of the American education debate in the 20th century because it pointed way of reforms and positive examples described, could be shown to those who like the idea of the "new education "Putting left.

In his Adolf Reich wine and Maria Montessori - the latter he was critical of ( Educational Rundschau 50 (1996 ), No. 2, pp. 209-219 ) - he reminds progressive education primarily through its well-known teaching approach of "learning by doing" gained popularity. The term is sometimes jokingly referred to in educational circles as "learning with dewey - ing". It handles but clearly too short to reduce Dewey on this approach. Although in his action reference of knowledge throughout has an effect, however, is central in his philosophy of the relation of abstract concepts and concrete situations to each other. Abstract concepts (such as the illustration of water as "H2O" ) while having an instrumental value, they transcend the specific situation and help to create new possibilities for action.

Writings ( in German )

  • Democracy and education. An introduction to the philosophical pedagogy. Hirt, Breslau 1930; Beltz, Weinheim 2000, ISBN 3-407-22057- X.
  • Human nature. Their nature and their behavior. German publishing house, Stuttgart 1931; Pestalozzianum, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-03755-018- X.
  • How we think. A study on the relation of reflective thinking to the process of education. Morgarten, Zurich 1951; Pestalozzianum, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-907526-98-8.
  • German philosophy and German politics. Western culture Verlag, Meisenheim 1954; Philo, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-8257-0115-8.
  • Man or mass. Universe, Vienna 1956; new as: freedom and culture. Pestalozzianum, Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-03755-006-6.
  • Basic Psychological Problems of Education. Man and his behavior, experience and education. Eingel. and ed. by Werner Correll. Reinhardt ( UTB 331 ), Munich 1974, ISBN 3-497-00722-6.
  • Art as Experience. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1980; ibid 1995, ISBN 3-518-28303-0.
  • Education by and for experience. Initiated, selected and annotated by Helmut Schreier. Klett- Cotta, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-608-93346-8.
  • The renewal of philosophy. Junius, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-88506-409- X.
  • Experience and nature. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1995; ibid 2007, ISBN 978-3-518-29465-9.
  • The public and its problems. Philo, Bodenheim 1996; ibid 2001, ISBN 3-8257-0206-5.
  • The search for certainty. An investigation of the relationship between knowledge and action. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 1998; ibid 2001, ISBN 3-518-29127-0.
  • Educational essays and papers ( 1900-1944 ). Pestalozzianum, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-907526-96-1
  • Logic. The theory of the research. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002; ibid 2008, ISBN 978-3-518-29502-1 ( review ).
  • Philosophy and civilization. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-518-29274-9.
  • Experience, knowledge, and value. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-518-29247-1.
  • Liberalism and social action. Collected Essays 1888 until 1937. Mohr, Tübingen, 2010, ISBN 978-3-16-150529-4.
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